THE 1978 SPRING RECREATIONAL CATCH OF 



ATLANTIC MACKEREL, SCOMBER SCOMBRUS, 



OFF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC REGION 



Atlantic mackerel. Scomber scomhrus, season- 

 ally migrate through the Middle Atlantic region, 

 usually appearing off Virginia in March with a 

 gradual movement inshore and north until they 

 move out of the area by mid-June. They spend 

 the summer and early autumn north of Cape 

 Cod, only briefly returning to the coastal waters 

 of the Middle Atlantic in late fall, before migrat- 

 ing offshore and south in late December or 

 January (Bigelow and Schroeder 1953). They 

 are primarily available to recreational anglers 

 along the Middle Atlantic coast during the 

 spring migration. As Christensen et al.^ found, 

 the autumn catch of Atlantic mackerel in New 

 Jersey in 1975 was <1% of the catch the follow- 

 ing spring. Recreational catches declined from 

 an estimated 32,000 t in 1970 (Deuel 1973) to 

 5,000 t in 1976 (Christensen et al. footnote 1). 

 Although the recreational catch estimates lack 

 measures of accuracy and reliability, the decline 

 follows the steady decline in total stock from 2.4 

 million t in 1969 to 469,000 t in 1978 (Anderson 

 1979). 



An estimate of total landings and age composi- 

 tion of the catch is necessary for assessment and 

 management of the stock. This survey was in- 

 itiated by personnel of the Northeast Fisheries 

 Center (NEFC) Sandy Hook Laboratory National 

 Marine Fisheries Service iNMFS) in cooperation 

 with State personnel from the Delaware Division 

 of Fish and Wildlife, the New Jersey Division of 

 Fish, Game and Shellfisheries, and the New York 

 State Department of Environmental Conserva- 

 tion at the request of the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries 

 Management Council. Although the request was 

 to determine the 1978 recreational catch of Atlan- 

 tic mackerel between Virginia and New York, Vir- 

 ginia and Maryland were not included in the sur- 

 vey as the Atlantic mackerel fishing season had 

 already begun in those states. 



Methods 



Sampling 



A list of inlets, grouped into five regions includ- 



ing Delaware, southern New Jersey, northern New 

 Jersey, coastal Long Island, and Long Island 

 Sound (Table 1) was prepared for the Middle At- 

 lantic coastline (Figure 1). Inlets were randomly 

 selected for weekly sampling from the list of inlets 

 within the regions where Atlantic mackerel were 

 knowTi or anticipated to be present. The list indi- 

 cating availability of Atlantic mackerel in an area 

 was primarily determined by telephone conversa- 

 tions with marina owners and commercial sport- 

 fishing vessel operators advertising in two weekly 

 fishing magazines, The Fisherman'^ and The Long 

 Island Fisherman.^ These observations were then 

 confirmed during subsequent on-site interviews 

 with vessel operators. In this way it was possible to 

 concentrate sampling efforts in regions where At- 

 lantic mackerel were available and to determine 

 the lengths of the regional seasons. 



Personnel from cooperating State agencies con- 

 fined sampling to their respective states and 

 worked primarily weekdays while NEFC person- 

 nel sampled in all regions both weekends and 

 weekdays following the movement of Atlantic 

 mackerel northward. Data collected before Atlan- 



^The Fisherman for the New Jersey, Delmarva, and Hatteras 

 fisherman. NJF Publishing Corp., Sag Harbor, N.Y. 



^The Long Island Fisherman. LIF Publishing Corp., Sag Har- 

 bor, N.Y. 



T.\BLE 1. — Summary of sampling activity and dates of Atlantic 

 mackerel availability in regions along the Middle Atlantic coast 

 in 1978. 



'Christensen, D. J., B. L. Freeman, and S. C. Turner 1976. 

 The United States recreational fishery for Atlantic mackerel. 

 Int. Comm. NW Atl. Fish., Res. Doc. 76/XII/142, ser no. 4038, 

 7 p. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 78. NO. .3. 1980. 



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